Long before dance music was divided into a million subgenres, Héctor Romero was mixing things up at his legendary block parties in the Bronx. During those anything-goes days, Romero — then known as Baby Hec — developed a love for early house music through residencies at legendary NYC clubs such…
Like neo-folk songster Devendra Banhart, London-born singer-songwriter Jeremias grew up in Venezuela, a country that once counted with a high population of hippie expats. And like Banhart, he loves to write roots music, except that in Jeremias’s case, the tunes are sung solely in Spanish. Although love, betrayal, and redemption…
It’s mid-March, which means it’s time for Carnaval Miami’s legendary Calle Ocho street party. The free event — this year celebrating its 30th anniversary — attracts more than a million people from all over the world, making it the largest Spanish-language music festival in the nation. It all began in…
In Miami, the central destination for Latin pop stars, concerts by international heartthrobs are held every day. Even so, Thursday’s show by Spanish singer Miguel Bosé at the James L. Knight Center is special, for Bosé is no ordinary Latin artist. After more than three decades in the music business,…
Will the world end by the year 2013? According to local left-field hip-hop duo Junc Ops, the answer is a resounding yes. Conceived by producers PG-13 (a.k.a. Paul Gaeta) and Kentsoundz (Kent Hernandez), Junc Ops’ debut album, 2013, is striving to put the weird back into the Magic City’s hip-hop…
Back in 1965, a young Philip Glass learned the intricate techniques of Indian music from legendary sitar master Ravi Shankar. Enamored with those exotic Indian ragas, the Juilliard-trained Glass sought to apply traditional Eastern composition methods to his musical pieces – and became one of the leading figures of the…
Many kids grow up dreaming of pop stardom, and in Miami it’s no different. But for some, the route to the business leads them straight into our region’s fertile Latin music scene, where young aspiring pop singers are groomed from childhood to become the future stars of the Spanish-speaking world…
When jazz legends such as John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie needed a percussionist to spice up their grooves with some hot Latin flavor, they called on Candido “Manos De Fuego” Camero. Born in 1921, Camero rose to fame when he was still a child in the streets of…
Since the early Sixties, when saxophonist Stan Getz introduced American audiences to the poptastic sounds of bossa nova, Brazilian jazz has been a staple for a cool and sophisticated evening. The aptly named Nosso Trio (Portuguese for “our trio”) belongs to that long tradition of gifted musicians who skillfully mix…
It’s a sweltering afternoon in the impoverished Miami district of Overtown. In the nearly treeless neighborhood, cracked sidewalks typically remain vacant this blistering time of day, but today they’re brimming with hundreds of enthusiastic residents. DJ Khaled — with a little help from hip-hop celebrity friends Busta Rhymes, Trick Daddy,…
Cuban-born hip-hop trio Orishas are known for rhyming about the daily struggles faced by those living in their homeland, often dealing head-on with touchy themes such as racial discrimination, poverty, and immigration. Even so, there’s one area where Orishas’ MC Ruzzo (a.k.a. Hiram Riverí) refuses to tread. “We are not…
There’s a lot of love among musicians in the Magic City. Really quite a lot. How much, you ask? So much that for the past three years, key players in some of our most groundbreaking bands spend their off time collaborating in an ongoing amorphous project known as Monkey Village…
Remember those good old days in 2005, when Awesome New Republic ruled our local indie scene with fresh songs like “Kill South Beach Dead”? Back then you couldn’t walk anywhere near Wynwood — or Churchill’s, for that matter — without having someone wax poetically about this new, eclectic local duo…
Although he’s in the middle of an 11-city national arena tour, platinum-selling reggaeton artist Daddy Yankee has still felt the heat of the growing anti-immigration sentiment spreading throughout the United States. “Let’s be honest — there are some politicians right now working against Latinos,” the 30-year-old says via cell phone…
Recording the song “Highs and Lows” at Scott Storch’s lavish Palm Island waterfront mansion was a dream come true for the young members of Miami quartet Bottom of da Map. After all, the renowned Storch is one of the top producers in the business, having sired major hits for megastars…
Sitting inside a mostly empty Churchill’s Pub before he is set to perform, Kent Hernandez considers a dilemma facing most artists in the capricious local music scene. How do you get fair-weather Miamians to show more support for our homebrewed acts? “I think that we have just as much, if…
Calle 13 crashed its way into the reggaeton party in 2005, coming seemingly out of nowhere with its hard-hitting eponymous debut. Booty-shaking though it was, the Puerto Rico-based duo’s album offered a much-needed respite from reggaeton’s seemingly nonstop party antics. So it really wasn’t a great shock when Calle 13…
Life has provided percussionist Lazaro Alfonso with plenty of highlights, from playing the congas at Havana’s world-renowned club Tropicana, to sharing a stage with keyboardist Page McConnell, of the popular jam band Phish. These days Alfonso is best known as the nimble, dreadlocked conguero for the electro-funk troupe the Spam…
Back in 2001, Ricky Martin was invited to perform at the Presidential inaugural for President George W. Bush. On that cold and snowy eve, Martin sang his hit “The Cup of Life” in front of the Lincoln Memorial. To everyone’s surprise, the ultimate Latin party boy invited Dubya to join…
Back in 2004, the four teenage members of DMG spent every waking moment writing and recording songs. The plan was simple: to come up with a mainstream hit in the same vein as Top 40 acts such as Jay-Z and Outkast. But there was a rather obvious problem: copying a…
There’s no shortage of bands composing ditties about love and loss in bustling alternative music sweet spots such as London and Brooklyn. Even so, if an indie group is capable of producing gorgeous modern ballads while residing in sleepy strip-mall South Florida, you can bet the players are tapping into…
Most artists yearn to be recognized and admired by the public. But in the cutthroat world of Jamaican dancehall, fame can lead to serious trouble, particularly if you happen to be a member of the thriving Miami collective Black Chiney. “Back in 2002 someone sent us an e-mail,” says Supa…
